Second Best
by xsilentlyxscreamingx
Summary: Just when Lucy Stone thought that this might be different, reality set in. History tends to repeat itself and she should have seen it coming.


_So, it's nearly ten p.m. on my twenty-first birthday and this idea came into my head. I wanted to hurry up and type it before it left my head...like** so many** decent plot bunnies do. I hope you enjoy._

**X-X_  
_**

Lucy Stone had always been second best. It was nothing new to the Ohio native. But that didn't mean it didn't hurt each time it had happened.

She was always compared to Gracie. Even the small fact that Gracie was ten minutes older seared into Lucy's head. Her parents constantly asking her why her grades couldn't be as perfect as her sister's. How come she wasn't on the line for Valedictorian like Gracie. How come she couldn't dress as feminine and perfectly as Gracie. Why didn't she have a gaggle of friends like Gracie.

**_Gracie_**, _Gracie_, Gracie.

When Greg and Kira Stone got divorced, Kira remarried a man who had two sons of his own. A fucked up Brady Bunch, if you will. Kira doted on the boys who were almost a year younger than her own daughters. Kira was so happy to finally have sons to baby over. Even Gracie got along with them. Lucy was the redheaded stepchild. Well, striped redhead, but it's all the same thing in the long run.

Then came Lucas. Her classmate since first grade. He was a year ahead of her. They began dating the end of her sophomore year. The summer before Lucy's junior year and Lucas' senior, she gave the most cherished thing a woman had to him. Her virginity. The night was full of loving words, promises of being together until they were old and grey. And in the midst of feeling loved for once, she fell for it. By the first week of school that fall, he tossed her aside with a fist bump to his best friend. It was still a blur for her, but key words she got from it were '_bet_' and '_easy_' and '_goth freak_' and then she just zoned out from there.

The one time she finally felt like she mattered was when she moved from the hellhole Buckeye state to California. The land of dreams. Honestly? She just wanted a change of scenery and using her love of music as an excuse was just convenient. Anything to get away from Gracie. From the golden boys. From Lucas.

When James Diamond and Carlos Garcia fought -_damn near physical, if she could add_- over who would date her...it was nice. In a twisted, fucked up kind of way. But even if she knew in her head how sexy James was or how adorable his smaller friend was...she couldn't. Visions of Lucas came back and that's when she placed them both in the friends' zone.

She expected that to be the last romantic event for a long, long time in her life. Maybe ever. But Kendall Knight had his ways, being the leader and always finding ways to change things up to his liking. What started off as friendly banter -_spying on him and Camille at Logan's demand_- somehow led into late nights at her small apartment. The size of it sometimes mocked by Kendall, comparing it to the guys' one time classroom at the School of Rocque.

These nights weren't full of movie-like sex and passion scenarios. It was just talking. About her picture perfect twin. About his absent father. About her nearly non-existent love life. About his similar one, his lost love across the world, filming movies for the next three years.

She didn't nor couldn't pinpoint the exact moment that she fell in love with Kendall Knight, but all she knew is that it scared her. But somehow in the midst of her terror, she gained the courage to vocalize her feelings to the ex-hockey captain.

Until Camille sent her a text, abruptly cancelling their plans to go shopping due to an old friend returning to the states. Lucy thought nothing of it. Camille was a nice girl, although a tad bit insane at times. She had plenty of friends.

It wasn't until Lucy got off of the elevator, planning a day of tanning outside as a replacement of lost shopping, that she knew.

The sound of a horrible train-wreck couldn't compare to the sound and feeling of Lucy's heart being pulverized in her chest as she saw a couple in the middle of the lobby. It shocked her that it wasn't actually audible to the other occupants. If she didn't know, she might have thought the two blond kids were adorable and in love. But she knew that the way Kendall's lips were pressed against the shorter blonde's, that it had happened again.

Turning on her heels, she hit the elevator button.

Resting her head back against the metal wall, her eyes closed as a small trickle emerged from her closed eyes and slowly trailed down her hot cheeks.

_Once again...Lucy was second best._

**X-X**_  
_

_AN: I hate Kendall/Jo with the white-hot intensity of a thousand suns. But I had to add it in to make it work. I don't know if this will be a oneshot or if it'll continue. I just hope you all review and tell me your thoughts._

_Thanks. :)_


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